Wednesday, April 17, 2013

sooo many tears....and also for Boston.

i feel for all of the families and everyone who is affected by the Boston Marathon bombing that recently occurred. i have many tears. many, many tears.

and you should know that my province, Nova Scotia, and Boston have a very close history. You may not know that during the Halifax explosion of 1917, that the city of Boston were the first responders and saved sooo many Nova Scotian lives. Boston has always been a true friend to us and that is why we send a Nova Scotian Christmas tree to the city of Boston for over 100 years. Boston and Nova Scotia have an incredible history that most people, both Canadian and American know nothing about.

i cry for Boston...i cry for everyone, everywhere, who has been affected by this terrible tragedy.

but i cry harder for a Canadian folk singer who just passed. her name is Rita MacNeil. she was from Big Pond, Cape Breton Island. my island. she was not beautiful but beautiful was her spirit and her voice. she represented what my island...and the people of my island... are all about. she was a lovely human being. you can learn more about her here.

she was a heroe. and many of us cape bretoners are hurt. please pray for all of the Bostonians, their friends and families and everyone else who has been impacted by the horrible events that happened at the Boston Marathon.

but please also pray for all of us Cape Bretoners....whose hearts are heavy. we have lost an angel. an angel that we loved so much.

this is one of the songs that she is most famous for. she sings it with the backing of "The Men of the Deeps", which is a male chorus of coal miners here in Cape Breton. the song, which she wrote, is about working in the coal mine.

my father was a coal miner and could never hear this song without crying. i could never hear this song without crying. at most of our community dances this song is played. and everyone cries.

please listen to the song. Rita MacNeil, although loved by Canadians, Brits and Australians was never properly famous. she should have been. but she wasn't.

she will be sorely missed by her beloved island....which is my beloved island. please, listen to her song. check out some of her other songs on youtube - she made 24 albums!!!! and read her wikipedia page.

she is a beloved angel of this isle....and we are hurting from the loss of her. our island will recover...but we will never forget.

Rita...you were one in a million...and an angel to many. i know that you are in the arms of my Lord and Saviour...where you belong. thank you for everything.

It's been a bad couple of days in this world. Prayers and warm thoughts are being sent to all victims and their families in the Boston Marathon incident. Also prayers and warm thoughts go out to Rita MacNeil.

Love and Hugs being sent to K&J, hope all is well with you two. Your Friend,Sandy

I am so sorry for the loss of Rita MacNeil. Cape Breton music is famous all over the world, and she was one of the queens of it.I did know that Boston figured prominently as responders to the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. It was so funny while we were there. I expected to feel something in the harbour....but I did not. I suppose that all the people who lost loved ones that day, are by now, reunited with them. Thank you for your kind words for the wonderful and tenacious people of Boston.

Jane - cape breton has truly lost an angel and she was definitely queen of cape breton music. she helped so many other cape breton musicians get into the music field. she was very gracious, humble and shy. however, the people of cape breton think of her as a superstar.

because the Boston train was able to get through the horrible snowstorm right after the explosion when no one else could get close enough - that is why the city of Boston is held dear in our nova scotia hearts. they really were the first real group of actual responders - medical people, firemen, and ordinary citizens came and helped for quite a while.

it's strange that you mention not feeling anything at the harbour - the times that i have been there, i feel a real sense of what everyone accomplished after such a horrible event. i feel a sense of the horror that they must have felt, and the deaths and injuries, but i also sense a feeling of unity and of people helping people...real humanity.

the people of Boston will never be forgotten in nova scotia. and they will always get their nova scotian christmas tree!

The wikipedia article was extrememly long. However, it was well worth the reading. Anyone who read the top part and stopped when the history of the settlement was recounted should read to the bottom of the article. I was amazed that I knew absolutely nothing of this occurrence. The facts of the destruction and how far it was felt out to see and overland was astounding. Thanks for the lesson.

DFW - she was a really humble, shy, gracious, loving, sharing person. as i said to Jane above, once she really got into the music business, she helped alot of other cape breton musicians make it into the business, too. she was not greedy about her fame, she shared it with others. she also set up a tea room here on the island which is quite a tourist attraction.

Thanks for sharing sweet friend... The only Rita I know begins with "Marga" nice to hear of another.Yes very sad for our country and yours, these are dark times we are living in.. My fear is this was only the prelude to something bigger..

big Bro - what a sweet and wonderful thing to say! but to be honest, the people of Cape Breton Island and other Nova Scotians are some of the nicest, kindest, humblest, gracious and welcoming people in the world, and we are small reflections of these amazing people. i,too, am deeply saddened by this weeks events which only got weirder and stranger as the week went by. and thank you for being who you are, big Bro! lots of love to you and Mrs. Rat!

Today,I talked with exbf and we talked about Boston and the Texas explosion. As soon as I mentioned Halifax, he knew all about it and was recounting facts to me. You have to believe I was pretty amazed. He is smart and well-read in history.

The only thing I ever learned of Nova Scotia was from studying Longfellow's Evangeline. The link between Nova Scotia and Louisiana is forever in my mind. The expulsion from Nova Scotia was a sad story. I really hate history, but if you give me a story or poem and tell me the history happening at the time, I remember.

PracticalP/Linda - i love interesting tidbits of history about all kinds of different places in the world. but one thing i really love is to yak with someone who is similar and has all kinds of knowledge about all kinds of interesting things. your exbf sounds like he would be fun to talk to. as do you.

i love Longfellow and of course the poem Evangeline. did you know that the word "cajun" is a slang version of "acadian". alot of people, even cajuns, don't know that their true and proper history began in nova scotia. i love history as a i said above, but i really like songs that are about historical events. and songs are just poems that are sung. neat, eh?

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

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Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!